Classification of Quarry Blasts and Tectonic Events with Time and Frequency Domain Methods in Gaziantep-Kahramanmaras Region, Turkey

Gaziantep-Kahramanmaras region is located on the tectonically active area and the southeastern part of Turkey . In this region, mining and quarry companies are widely scattered and the explosives are being used for material supply. Therefore not only the tectonic events but also the artificial explosions have been recorded by the seismic stations in the region. The complexity of the catalogues through the recordings of artificial and natural seismic events is a major problem for the seismological studies. The aim of this study is to distinguish between natural and artificial sources in the study area and to provide a clear definition in catalogs. The recorded signals were provided from the earthquake station GAZ, operating by Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute Regional Earthquake-Tsunami Monitoring Center (KOERI-RETMC). Only the vertical components of the seismograms of 95 seismic events with up to 3.0 local magnitude in between 2013-2016 were used. The analyses were done with amplitude ratio, complexity and Continuous Wavelet Transform methods. The statistical approaches that the linear and quadratic discriminant functions (LDF-QDF) were used for classification of the events. About an amplitude ratio method, 69 and 70 earthquakes were determined with LDF and QDF, respectively. On the complexity method, 24 quarry blasts were discriminated with the same functions. According to the Continuous Wavelet Transform analysis, all events were categorized. As the results, QDF could classify the events better than LDF and these functions are more successful in the amplitude ratio method rather than complexity through the comparison with first visual inspection. In addition, all events were discriminated through the Continuous Wavelet Transform analysis with a success rate as 100%